Sean O'Brien

George Allen walks out of the Cole County Courthouse on November 14, 2012. A state appeals court today vacated his 1983 rape and murder convictions.

George Allen served 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Last year, a judge told Allen that he had been wrongfully convicted and set him free. It’s been several months since Allen left prison, and to some who fought so hard to get him out; his release is bittersweet and not enough.

The crime was brutal. In February 1982, St. Louis court reporter Mary Bell was found dead in her LaSalle neighborhood apartment. She had been raped and stabbed.